Phys.org news tagged with:electrical pulseshttp://phys.org/
en-usPhys.org internet news portal provides the latest news on science including: Physics, Nanotechnology, Life Sciences, Space Science, Earth Science, Environment, Health and Medicine.Electrons at the speed limitElectronic components have become faster and faster over the years, thus making powerful computers and other technologies possible. Researchers at ETH Zurich have now investigated how fast electrons can ultimately be controlled with electric fields. Their insights are of importance for the petahertz electronics of the future.http://phys.org/news/2016-08-electrons-limit.html
General Physics Fri, 26 Aug 2016 10:27:46 ESTnews391426043Electric eels make leaping attacksIn a legendary account the famous 19th century explorer and naturalist Alexander von Humboldt recounted a dramatic battle between horses and electric eels that he witnessed on a field trip to the Amazon. In the following 200 years, however, there have been no scientific reports of similar behavior on the part of the eels, suggesting that perhaps von Humboldt exaggerated.http://phys.org/news/2016-06-electric-eels.html
Plants & Animals Mon, 06 Jun 2016 15:00:07 ESTnews384431984The danger of overselling scienceImagine seeing this headline:http://phys.org/news/2016-05-danger-overselling-science.html
Other Thu, 12 May 2016 08:01:56 ESTnews382258891Cooling chips with the flip of a switchTurn on an electric field, and a standard electrocaloric material will eject heat to its surroundings as its internal dipoles reorder themselves. Do the same thing, and a negative electrocaloric material will absorb heat, cooling the environment, thanks to the blend of ferroelectric polymers that make up each. While these materials have been investigated as a method of on-demand microclimate control for quite some time, there's a catch - the external field needs to remain active, which is energy-consuming and ends up heating the material. Recently, however, researchers at Pennsylvania State University have developed a unique blend of ferroelectric polymers which can hold absorbed heat even after the external field has been switched off - a system which could be adapted for a variety of small-scale systems.http://phys.org/news/2016-04-cooling-chips-flip.html
General Physics Tue, 05 Apr 2016 11:46:20 ESTnews379075572Electric eels curl up to deliver even more powerful shocksThe electric eel may be one of the most remarkable predators in the entire animal kingdom. That is the conclusion of Kenneth Catania, Stevenson Professor of Biological Sciences at Vanderbilt University, who has spent the last three years studying the way this reclusive South American fish uses electric fields to navigate through the muddy waters of the Amazon and Orinoco basins where it lives, locate hidden prey and stun them into submission.http://phys.org/news/2015-10-electric-eels-powerful.html
Plants & Animals Wed, 28 Oct 2015 12:00:01 ESTnews365241705Research team claims to have directly sampled electric-field vacuum fluctuations(Phys.org)—A team of researchers working at the University of Konstanz, in Germany is claiming to have directly sampled electric-field vacuum fluctuations, which would be the first ever made. In their paper published in the journal Science, the team describes an experiment they carried out and a part of it which they claim indicates that they have measured vacuum fluctuations directly for the first time.http://phys.org/news/2015-10-team-sampled-electric-field-vacuum-fluctuations.html
General Physics Fri, 02 Oct 2015 08:06:53 ESTnews362992002Best of Last Week – Replacing wires with light, physics mystery solved and link between vitamin D and depression(Phys.org)—It was an impressive week for researchers combining physics and engineering as one team of engineers took a big step toward using light instead of wires inside computers—they've created a prism-like device that can split light into its different colors and bend each at a right angle, a possible step towards carrying data optically. Meanwhile, another team looking to answer the question of whether capacitors in electrical circuits can provide large-scale energy storage has been able to show that that the right combination of resistors and capacitors can allow both quick charging and long-term discharging, possibly opening up a path for using them instead of batteries in some devices.http://phys.org/news/2014-12-week-wires-physics-mystery-link.html
Other Mon, 08 Dec 2014 08:20:01 ESTnews337248038Study details laser pulse effects on behavior of electronsBy solving a six-dimensional equation that had previously stymied researchers, University of Nebraska-Lincoln physicists have pinpointed the characteristics of a laser pulse that yields electron behavior they can predict and essentially control.http://phys.org/news/2014-11-laser-pulse-effects-behavior-electrons.html
General Physics Wed, 26 Nov 2014 06:13:10 ESTnews336204781Nerve impulses can collide and continue unaffectedAccording to the traditional theory of nerves, two nerve impulses sent from opposite ends of a nerve annihilate when they collide. New research from the Niels Bohr Institute now shows that two colliding nerve impulses simply pass through each other and continue unaffected. This supports the theory that nerves function as sound pulses. The results are published in the scientific journal Physical Review X.http://phys.org/news/2014-09-nerve-impulses-collide-unaffected.html
General Physics Wed, 10 Sep 2014 11:20:01 ESTnews329565835Laser pulse turns glass into a metalFor tiny fractions of a second, quartz glass can take on metallic properties, when it is illuminated be a laser pulse. This has been shown by calculations at the Vienna University of Technology. The effect could be used to build logical switches which are much faster than today's microelectronics.http://phys.org/news/2014-08-laser-pulse-glass-metal.html
Optics & Photonics Tue, 26 Aug 2014 08:48:13 ESTnews328261676Highly conductive organic metal looks promising for disposable electronic devices(Phys.org) —Although organic materials are often used as semiconductors, such as in organic LEDs and organic transistors, organic materials that have an electrical conductivity as high as that of metals are still very scarce. One problem with developing organic metals is that there is a tradeoff in terms of their crystalline structure: a high crystallinity is required for high conductivity, but is detrimental to the materials' processability.http://phys.org/news/2014-08-highly-metal-disposable-electronic-devices.html
Materials Science Tue, 19 Aug 2014 09:20:02 ESTnews327643761Light pulses control graphene's electrical behaviorGraphene, an ultrathin form of carbon with exceptional electrical, optical, and mechanical properties, has become a focus of research on a variety of potential uses. Now researchers at MIT have found a way to control how the material conducts electricity by using extremely short light pulses, which could enable its use as a broadband light detector.http://phys.org/news/2014-08-pulses-graphene-electrical-behavior.html
Nanomaterials Fri, 01 Aug 2014 02:24:27 ESTnews326078647Using carbon to control the light(Phys.org) —The flip of a light switch – a nano-scale light switch – may some day dramatically boost the speed of data transmission, from streaming movies to accelerating the most data-intense computation. Today, information flow in a computer is based on electrical pulses. But if an electrical signal could instead control a light switch, the "ones and zeros" that give data meaning could race through computer circuits at ten times the current speed. A ten-fold increase in speed would mean a similar spike in the volume of information that can be processed.http://phys.org/news/2014-03-carbon.html
Nanophysics Thu, 06 Mar 2014 06:45:31 ESTnews313310720Anti-shark devices popular on Maui after attacksA surge in shark attacks on Maui over the past year, including two fatal ones, hasn't stopped people from surfing and swimming in the warm ocean waters that surround the Hawaii island. But it has spurred sales of devices that claim to keep sharks away by emitting an electric pulse.http://phys.org/news/2014-01-anti-shark-devices-popular-maui.html
Plants & Animals Fri, 24 Jan 2014 12:30:01 ESTnews309787199Laser-induced damage in focusThe transformation of infrared light to a different wavelength, such as visible light, is important in many applications. Some of the most efficient semiconductor lasers operate in the infrared region of the spectrum, whereas many useful applications of laser light, such as laser surgery or spectroscopy, require light of a different wavelength. The most efficient way to convert light into different wavelengths is to use nonlinear optical crystals, but these tend to suffer crystal damage at high laser intensities. Oleg Louchev from the RIKEN Center for Advanced Photonics and colleagues have now discovered that such crystal damage arises from small localized temperature rises due to photon absorption and electric field effects within the crystal. http://phys.org/news/2014-01-laser-induced-focus.html
General Physics Fri, 17 Jan 2014 09:26:53 ESTnews309173203Intelligent training with a fitness shirt and an E-bikeFabric manufacturers are experiencing a revolution: If clothing previously offered protection against the cold, rain, and snow, the trend now is toward intelligent, proactive, high-tech textiles like self-cleaning jackets, gloves that recognize toxins, and ski anoraks with integrated navigational devices to make life easier for those wearing them. Most clever clothing is only at the prototype stage. It is by no means off-the-rack yet. Soon the FitnessSHIRT from the Fraunhofer Institute for Integrated Circuits IIS in Erlangen, Germany, will be ready for the mass market. It continuously measures physiological signals such as breathing, pulse, and changes in heart rate – metrics of adaptability and stress load. The intelligent sports shirt is expected to be available sometime in the next year, as an investor is already onboard.http://phys.org/news/2013-11-intelligent-shirt-e-bike.html
Engineering Mon, 04 Nov 2013 10:30:01 ESTnews302781979The '50-50' chip: Memory device of the future?A new, environmentally-friendly electronic alloy consisting of 50 aluminum atoms bound to 50 atoms of antimony may be promising for building next-generation "phase-change" memory devices, which may be the data-storage technology of the future, according to a new paper published in the journal Applied Physics Letters, which is produced by AIP Publishing.http://phys.org/news/2013-09-chip-memory-device-future.html
Semiconductors Fri, 13 Sep 2013 13:59:03 ESTnews298299525Research team building a computer chip based on the human brainToday's computing chips are incredibly complex and contain billions of nano-scale transistors, allowing for fast, high-performance computers, pocket-sized smartphones that far outpace early desktop computers, and an explosion in handheld tablets.http://phys.org/news/2013-08-team-chip-based-human-brain.html
Computer Sciences Thu, 15 Aug 2013 08:44:08 ESTnews295775035Zero-dimensional transistor harvests bubble energy wasted during water electrolysis(Phys.org) —When hydrogen is produced from water during electrolysis, some energy is lost as tiny bubbles. In a new study, researchers have demonstrated that 25-nm transistors—so small that they're considered zero-dimensional (0D)—can be used to transform this lost energy into electric pulses. Millions of these 0D transistors could be used to detect individual bubbles and generate electric pulses at an optimal efficiency, gathering part of the energy lost during electrolysis and making it available for other uses.http://phys.org/news/2013-08-zero-dimensional-transistor-harvests-energy-electrolysis.html
Nanophysics Tue, 13 Aug 2013 09:00:02 ESTnews295586522The broken symphony of swinging metronomesAn experiment with 30 metronomes reveals chimera states which combine aspects of synchrony and of disorder. Researchers had been looking for such states for ten years.http://phys.org/news/2013-06-broken-symphony-metronomes.html
Wed, 19 Jun 2013 19:40:01 ESTnews290888468Mars and the machineWithout hi-tech magnetic sensors, rovers wouldn't be able to roam around Mars. These same sensors will soon boost terrestrial travel by improving the machinery that moulds parts for cars and aircraft here on Earth.http://phys.org/news/2013-04-mars-machine.html
Space Exploration Tue, 23 Apr 2013 08:59:14 ESTnews285926344A new twist for quantum systemsPhysicists at ETH Zurich have developed a method for precisely controlling quantum systems by exploiting a trick that helps cats to land on their feet and motorists to fit their cars into parking spots. In the longer run, the method could lead to the development of more reliable quantum computers.http://phys.org/news/2013-04-quantum.html
Quantum Physics Wed, 17 Apr 2013 13:00:11 ESTnews285416040Neighbors move electrons jointly: An ultrafast molecular movie on metal complexes in a crystalApplying femtosecond X-ray methods, researchers at the Max-Born-Institute in Berlin (Germany) and the Ecole Polytechnique Federale de Lausanne (Switzerland) observed an extremely fast, collective electron transfer of ~100 molecular ions after excitation of a single electron in a crystal of transition metal complexes.http://phys.org/news/2013-04-neighbors-electrons-jointly-ultrafast-molecular.html
Condensed Matter Wed, 17 Apr 2013 09:16:13 ESTnews285408964Nanoparticles show promise as inexpensive, durable and effective scintillatorsA team of industrial and university researchers has shown that nanoparticles with sizes smaller than 10 nanometers – approximately the width of a cell membrane – can be successfully incorporated into scintillation devices capable of detecting and measuring a wide energy range of X-rays and gamma rays emitted by nuclear materials.http://phys.org/news/2013-03-nanoparticles-inexpensive-durable-effective-scintillators.html
Nanomaterials Mon, 25 Mar 2013 11:49:21 ESTnews283430955Monitoring your vitals with a webcamYou may have used a webcam on your computer to make a video call. Someday that same camera - or one like it - might help doctors monitor your health.http://phys.org/news/2013-03-vitals-webcam.html
Hi Tech & Innovation Fri, 15 Mar 2013 19:20:01 ESTnews282591972Observing impact of subtle changes in electron distribution of crystal on its atomic structure on ultrashort time scalesWhen a crystal is hit by an intense ultrashort light pulse, its atomic structure is set in motion. A team of scientists from the Max Planck Institute of Quantum Optics (MPQ), the Technischen Universität München (TUM), the Fritz-Haber Institute in Berlin (FHI) and the Universität Kassel can now observe how the configuration of electrons and atoms in titanium dioxide, a semiconductor, changes under the impact of an ultraviolet laser pulse, confirming that even subtle changes in the electron distribution caused by the excitation can have a considerable impact on the whole crystal structure.http://phys.org/news/2013-03-mpact-subtle-electron-crystal-atomic.html
General Physics Fri, 01 Mar 2013 10:35:07 ESTnews281356481X-rays capture electron 'dance'(Phys.org)—The way electrons move within and between molecules, transferring energy as they go, plays an important role in many chemical and biological processes, such as the conversion of sunlight to energy in photosynthesis and solar cells. But the fastest steps in this energy transfer have eluded detection.http://phys.org/news/2013-01-x-rays-capture-electron.html
General Physics Thu, 31 Jan 2013 08:21:34 ESTnews278842845Speeding up electronics to light frequencies(Phys.org)—Modern information processing allows for breathtaking switching rates of about a 100 billion cycles per second. New results from the Laboratory for Attosecond Physics (LAP) of Prof. Ferenc Krausz (Max Planck Institute of Quantum Optics (MPQ), Garching, and Ludwig-Maximilians-Universität Munich) could pave the way towards signal processing several orders of magnitude faster. In two groundbreaking complementary experiments a collaboration led by LAP-physicists has demonstrated that, under certain conditions, ultrashort light pulses of extremely high intensity can induce electric currents in otherwise insulating dielectric materials (Nature, AOP, 5 December 2012). Furthermore, they provided evidence that the fast oscillations of the electric field instantly alter the electrical and optical properties of the material, and that these changes can be reversed on a femtosecond (10-15 s) time scale (Nature, same issue). This opens the door for signal processing rates reaching the petahertz (1015 Hz) domain, about 10,000 times faster than it is possible with the best state-of-the-art solid state microchips. The experiments were carried out by researchers from MPQ, LMU, and Technische Universität München, in close cooperation with the theoretical group of Prof. Mark Stockman (Georgia State University, Atlanta).http://phys.org/news/2012-12-electronics-frequencies.html
Optics & Photonics Mon, 17 Dec 2012 08:32:25 ESTnews274955533Ultra-short laser pulses control chemical processesSpecially shaped laser pulses can be used to change the state of electrons in a molecule. This process only takes several attoseconds—but it can initiate another, much slower process: The splitting of the molecule into two parts. Laser pulses can be used to initiate or suppress chemical reactions in a controlled way.http://phys.org/news/2012-12-ultra-short-laser-pulses-chemical.html
General Physics Wed, 12 Dec 2012 12:09:16 ESTnews274536547Making insulator conduct(Phys.org)—New results on the interaction of femto- and attosecond light pulses with a solid insulator hold promise for reaching electronic switching rates up to the petahertz domain.http://phys.org/news/2012-12-insulator.html
General Physics Wed, 05 Dec 2012 17:50:01 ESTnews273951415